Civil architecture

In the Aragonese era, the fashion spread, coming from Catalonia, to surround doors and windows with elegant stone exhibitions in order to enrich the façades of buildings that are usually undecorated. The phenomenon first affected cities and then arrived, according to a model of center-periphery cultural irradiation, in small towns and villages.

In this sense, the role of religious architecture was decisive, in whose construction sites models circulated and workers were educated. The adherence to Catalan stylistic features was almost total in Alghero, where relations with the Iberian Peninsula were stronger, as demonstrated, for example, by the framing of the windows of Casa Doria. On the other hand, the further you go into the interior of the island, examples of mixing with forms of popular inspiration emerge.

From a stylistic point of view, the decorations are characterized by the constant presence of the Catalan inflected arch in the middle of the lintels. On the other hand, the interpretation of the stylistic features linked to Catalan Gothic is never resolved in passive imitation: in fact, a “local” interpretation can almost always be found in the various elements that make up the frame, from moldings to columns and arches. The decorative repertoire of picapedrers (stonemasons) is varied and, while maintaining peculiar characters, it evolves over time.

Between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the spread of Renaissance modes, there was a further enrichment of forms, so it is not uncommon to find, for example, serrated frames and triangular tympani with molded classical frames associated with inflected arches or grooved and rugged columns surmounted by capitals that echo the shape of the Corinthian or composite ones.

Update

10/9/2023 - 15:46